Gene Davis Furniture
American, 1920-1985
Davis was born in Washington D.C. in 1920 and spent nearly all his life there. Before he began to paint in 1949, he worked as a sportswriter, covering the Washington Football Team and other local teams. Working as a journalist in the late 1940s, he covered the Roosevelt and Truman presidential administrations, and was often President Truman's partner for poker games. His first art studio was in his apartment on Scott Circle; later he worked out of a studio on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Davis's first solo exhibition of drawings was at the Dupont Theater Gallery in 1952, and his first exhibition of paintings was at Catholic University in 1953. A decade later he participated in the "Washington Color Painters" exhibit at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art in Washington, DC, which traveled to other venues around the US, and launched the recognition of the Washington Color School as a regional movement in which Davis was a central figure. The Washington painters were among the most prominent of the mid-century color field painters. Though, he worked in a variety of media and styles, including ink, oil, acrylic, video, and collage, Davis is best known by far for his acrylic paintings (mostly on canvas) of colorful vertical stripes, which he began to paint in 1958. The paintings typically repeat particular colors to create a sense of rhythm and repetition with variations. One of the best-known of his paintings, "Black Grey Beat" (1964), owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum reinforces these musical comparisons in its title. The pairs of alternating black and grey stripes are repeated across the canvas, and recognizable even as other colors are substituted for black and grey, and returned to even as the repetition of dark and light pairs is here and there broken by sharply contrasting colors.
In 1972 Davis created Franklin's Footpath, which was at the time the world's largest artwork, by painting colorful stripes on the street in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the world's largest painting, Niagara (43,680 square feet), in a parking lot in Lewiston, NY. His "micro-paintings", at the other extreme, were as small as 3/8 of an inch square.
For a public work in a different medium altogether, he designed the color patterns of the "Solar Wall," a set of tubes filled with dyed water and backlit by fluorescent lights, at the Muscarelle Museum of Art at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Davis began teaching in 1966 at the Corcoran School of Art, where he became a permanent member of the faculty. His works are in the collections of, among others, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, MN, The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in Albany, NY, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
He died on April 6, 1985 in Washington, DC.to
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
39
7,546
3,967
2,548
2,244
Creator: Gene Davis
Gene Davis Pencil Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Exhibition Poster
By Gene Davis
Located in Hudson, NY
This poster for an exhibition undertaken by the Smithsonian Institution and was produced as a Resident Associates Program Exhibit for the organizations 10th anniversary. The work is pencil signed and numbered 80 of 200. Davis was born in Washington DC in 1920 and died in the city he gave so much to in 1985. A major 20th-century figure in American painting Davis's contributions to Washington were invaluable in helping to establish DC as a center for contemporary art. Davis is also recognized as a prime mover in the national and international Color Abstract Movement and his ascendance to prominence started in the 1960s. He was never formally trained and learned his craft by constant gallery and museum visits and later said that this lack of boundaries from education freed him from any limitation on his work or process. Davis worked within the loosely formed Washington color school of painters which included other artists like Kenneth Nolan...
Category
1970s American Vintage Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Metal
Related Items
Rare Signed Alvin Loving Poster Exhibition at William Zierler Gallery
Located in New York, NY
Framed, signed poster by Alvin Loving (1935-2005).
Below is an excerpt from an online source.
Detroit-born Loving earned an MFA from the University of Michigan in 1965. He began hard edge painting of cubes and hexagons in 1967. After his first one-person exhibition at Gertrude Kasle gallery in Detroit in 1969, Loving launched his New York career. Gertrude Kasle provided Loving with letters of introduction to Harold Hart of Martha Jackson Gallery and Steven Wilde and Bert Walker, curators at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where he was given a critically acclaimed, one-person exhibition in 1969. Loving was the first of a group of African-American artists whose work was shown at the Whitney during the 1970s, including Frank Bowling, Frederick Eversley, Melvin Edwards...
Category
1970s Modern Vintage Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Chrome
Ben Shahn Exhibition Poster
By Ben Shahn
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Ben Shahn Jester Exhibition Poster from the 1960's. Framed in possibly an original frame from the period.
Category
1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Paper
Ben Shahn Original Lithograph Exhibition Poster 1960's, Signed in Plate
Located in Lambertville, NJ
Midcentury Modern 1964 original Ben Shahn lithograph exhibition poster dated March 3-28. This figural abstract art is framed in original brass t...
Category
1960s Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Metal
Victor Moscoso, Signed Vintage Exhibition Poster ‘Trippy World’
By Victor Moscoso
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Signed vintage Victor Moscoso exhibition poster
Published in conjunction with 'Trippy World' - a 1999 exhibition held at Baron/Boisante gallery, New York.
Off-set lithograph
Measures: 16 x 20 inches
Hand signed in pencil (lower right).
Very good to excellent overall condition
Signed First printing; 1999; acquired directly from Baron/Boisante.
Victor Moscoso was among the most gifted and influential artists to emerge from the '60s counterculture, pioneering not only the psychedelic concert poster designs made famous during San Francisco's Summer of Love, but also making his mark in underground comix. Born in Spain and raised in Brooklyn, Moscoso attended Cooper Union Art School before studying at the Yale School of Art; he arrived on the west coast in 1959 to enroll at the San Francisco Art Institute, and after graduation remained at the school for another five years to teach lithography. Alongside Rick Griffin, Wes Wilson, Stanley Mouse, and Alton Kelley...
Category
1960s Bohemian Vintage Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Paper
Concerto after Arman, Limited Edition, Plate Number 30 for Rosenthal
By Limoges, Arman, Theodore Haviland
Located in North Hollywood, CA
"Concerto d'apres Arman, Edition Limitee, Assiette No 30." signed and numbered in back. Concerto after Arman, Limited Edition, Plate Number 30
Porcelain platter for Haviland Limoges,...
Category
Late 20th Century French Modern Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Porcelain
Exhibition Poster, 1968
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Barcelona, Barcelona
Exhibition poster for Pablo Picaso, 1968.
Poster of his exhibition on the Gallery "Sala Gaspar" in Barcelona.
In good original condition.
Pab...
Category
1960s Spanish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Paper
Limited Edition Abstract Painting Signed and Numbered by Zelda Crane
Located in Hopewell, NJ
Beautiful rectangular giclee on paper of an abstract composition.
Signed Zelda Crane. Custom mat and contemporary frame.
#583/2000
(Chris D)
Category
1990s American Modern Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Paper
Leroy Neiman Signed & Numbered Limited Edition Etching 191/250 Dalmatian
By LeRoy Neiman
Located in Toledo, OH
Leroy Neiman hand signed limited edition original etching "Dalmatian" 191/250. Signed in pencil lower right. Framed in gold and black tone fra...
Category
1980s North American Modern Vintage Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Paper
H 37.5 in W 32.25 in D 1.5 in
Joan Miró "Les Essències De La Terra" Poster from 1969 in Milan, Italy
By Joan Miró
Located in Vulpellac, Girona
Poster for the exhibition: "Les Essències de la Terra" and the presentation of the Book: "Joan Miró i Catalunya" by Juan Perucho in 1969 at Al Milione Gallery, Milan, Italy.
Date:...
Category
20th Century Italian Modern Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Paper
H 30.32 in W 23.63 in D 0.04 in
Piero Fornasetti 1992 Exhibition Poster, Limited Variant Run and Framed
By Alliance Graphique
Located in South Charleston, WV
This is a hard to find, rare "THEME VARIATIONS" poster from the 1992 exhibition "FORNASETTI DESIGNER OF DREAMS at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The poster was designed by Kevin McIntyre in collaboration with the Piero Fornasetti estate and the illustrious printing company Graphique de...
Category
1990s French Mid-Century Modern Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Paper
H 27.63 in W 27.63 in D 0.75 in
Gaetano Pesce Exhibition Poster Bernini, Italy, 2001
By Gaetano Pesce
Located in Roosendaal, Noord Brabant
Rare exhibition poster designed by Gaetano Pesce for Bernini, Italy 2001. This poster was an exhibition poster for the Bernini Exhibition at Gal...
Category
Early 2000s Italian Post-Modern Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Glass, Wood, Paper
Yaacov Agam Signed and Numbered Exhibition poster
By Yaacov Agam
Located in Pasadena, TX
This is an exhibition poster by Yaacov Agam. The exhibition Life and Luck was held at Engel's Gallery. The poster is signed by the artist and numbered 81/110.
It's a rare poster inde...
Category
Late 20th Century American Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Paper
Previously Available Items
Gene Davis Paintings: 1960-1972 Vintage Modern Exhibition Poster Unframed
By Gene Davis
Located in Keego Harbor, MI
A bold and modern vintage exhibition poster showcasing traveling exhibitions for Gene Davis Paintings: 1960-1972. Gene Davis was an American Color Field painter known especially for ...
Category
Mid-20th Century Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Paper
H 32.75 in W 22.25 in D 1 in
Gene Davis Color Field Modern Abstract Print "Royal Curtain", 1980
By Gene Davis
Located in Washington, DC
Signed print by Washington D.C Color Field artist Gene Davis (1920-1985). Work is titled "Royal Curtain" and is from 1980. Hand signed in pencil lower right and numbered lower left. Work was printed by Alpha Omega...
Category
1980s American Modern Vintage Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Paper
Gene Davis Minimalist Art Lithograph, 1976
By Gene Davis
Located in Los Angeles, CA
1920-1985.
Ink on paper, in the original aluminum frame under glass.
The frame shows ware.
The print has not been taken out of the frame.
The artist did this piece as a homage to B...
Category
1970s American Vintage Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Paint
Gene Davis Lithograph "Signal" 1973
By Gene Davis
Located in Washington, DC
Gene Davis (American, 1920-1985) lithograph, titled "Signal". Signed in pencil, dated '73 and numbered 184/250. Measures 26 1/2" x 36" Glass and metal frame. Condition is excellent.
Category
1970s American Modern Vintage Gene Davis Furniture
Materials
Parchment Paper
Gene Davis furniture for sale on 1stDibs.
Gene Davis furniture are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of paper and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Gene Davis furniture, although brown editions of this piece are particularly popular. Many of the original furniture by Gene Davis were created in the mid-century modern style in united states during the 20th century. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider furniture by Sam Francis, Steve Schapiro, and Tony Rosenthal. Prices for Gene Davis furniture can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $750 and can go as high as $120,000, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $8,000.